The Radziwiłł cousins, prophecies and false news in mid-seventeenth-century Europe
ENThe article looks at how false prophecies and misinformation helped to enhance the image of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a Protestant state in contradistinction to the Kingdom of Poland, the identity of which was clearly Catholic. The 1650s was the time when the influence of the prophetic imposter Mikuláš Drabík and his visions became particularly pronounced. Moreover, fake news about the destruction of all Polish and Lithuanian Protestant churches found a targeted audience and seemed to have worked as a propagandistic device. This discourse regarding the reasons for the downfall of the Protestant churches in Poland- Lithuania fostered among western Europeans an interest in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and gave Janusz and Bogusław Radziwiłł an international reputation of saviours of the true faith, while at home they were vilified as traitors.
